Merry & Bright Sew Along : Wreaths 1 - 6
Hello there!
We're getting sewing this week on our Merry & Bright Quilt designed by Kate Spain. This week, we are making the first six wreath blocks and I wanted to share a few tips and photos in case you find them helpful to you.
Last week, I got all my fabric cut out and sorted the prints for the wreaths and bows. I made a test wreath block as well and will admit to doing this pretty quickly. There are two places I took a little more time when making the other five for this week's six wreath blocks that I wanted to share about here in hopes it helps you be successful.
Now, you might be thinking... "six blocks in a week?! Is she crazy?" Well, maybe, BUT I prefer to chain piece several blocks at once to make my sewing time more efficient. This is less time referencing a pattern and less times up and down from my machine to my iron. LOL
I selected blocks with the same bow fabrics to work on this week - thinking this might be less confusing, but actually, it was pretty easy to keep them all straight.
I started with the wreath centers, pinning all the small squares in place for all the blocks, sewing them all and then pressing them all, etc.
I will say that I HIGHLY recommend that you take the time to draw the lines on the back of these smaller squares (and later when making the geese for the bows). They are small pieces and you may think, "eh... I can eyeball it." And if you do eyeball it, and the corners come out a little wonky, you will need to be extra careful lining up the rectangles on the top and bottom of the wreath center so that your middle unit of the block is tall enough.
When I am sewing smaller squares and making geese, I will also sew just NEXT to my line instead of on it. This way when I fold the fabric back to the corner it accounts for the fold and tends to line up a little better with the original square or rectangle on the bottom.
I followed the pressing guides in the pattern with one exception. I pressed the seam in the center of the bow open. I felt this helped this section lay a little bit flatter and also helped the center section of my block end up at the right height to match the side units.
Once you have the center unit and the side units made, it is a total breeze to assemble these! I made five of my six in under two hours.
And now that they are all laid out, I can't wait to make the next set!
See you next week!
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